09.13.08
Do-No-Evil Saturday – Part III: Netware, Virtualisation, and Novellers
Not much can be covered here this week, but here are the key points.
Finance
A company that seeks attention by producing financial reports for some companies has just touched on Novell, whose market value declines.
SWOT Analysis company profile is the essential source for top-level company data and information. The report examines the company’s key business structure and operations, history and products, and provides summary analysis of its key revenue lines and strategy.
Netware
This cow cannot produce milk (or cash) forever and it’s reportedly being devoured, Microsoft being a main culprit. IDG has produced this article which names Netware among the “top 10 dead (or dying) computer skills”.
8. Certified NetWare Engineers
In the early 1990s, it was all the rage to become a Certified NetWare Engineer, especially with Novell Inc. enjoying 90% market share for PC-based servers. Today, however, you don’t have to look far to find CNEs retraining themselves with other skills to stay marketable. “It seems like it happened overnight,” Hayes says. “Everyone had Novell, and within a two-year period, they’d all switched to NT.” Novell says it will continue supporting NetWare 6.5 through at least 2015; however, it has also retired several of its NetWare certifications, including Master CNE and NetWare 5 CNE, and it plans to retire NetWare 6 CNE. “Companies are still paying skill premiums for CNEs, but they’re losing value,” Foote says.
Here is some more lost business for Novell.
We were using Novell, along with some NT and Unix systems, and to go along with that, 10 different AAA stores. You can imagine the complexity with that model. So we collapsed everything into Active Directory about five years ago and had one directory. I started [forcing users to] log on across campus, to streamline everything, using one username and password. We tried to do 24/7 services, but account lockout became an issue. It introduced a whole new set of problems for us.
Virtualisation
The following was mentioned last week, but because it’s pretty major there’s still some coverage of it in CBR and in Sys-con.
Novell has entered the application virtualization market with the launch of a tool that it said eliminates application compatibility problems on Windows desktops.
Novell announced the availability of Novell ZENworks Application Virtualization, an easy-to-use tool that eliminates application compatibility problems on Windows desktops. This addition to the ZENworks product line creates virtual applications in a single, isolated file and allows them to be deployed and run securely, reducing the problems associated with deploying new operating system (OS) platforms like Vista, decreasing expensive service desk calls and increasing user productivity. With ZENworks Application Virtualization, the only application virtualization solution on the market that includes pre-configured templates for popular business software, customers can now virtualize and deploy applications in as little as 20 minutes.
PlateSpin received its share of coverage too with a mention in Novell’s PR blog and the following press release.
PlateSpin ULC, a Novell(R) company, today announced a significantly enhanced global channel partner program that raises the industry bar in terms of the financial value proposition that partners need to build sustainable, profitable businesses around PlateSpin’s family of workload management solutions.
Yesterday we ranted about Sys-con and Novell. This corruptible publication [1, 2] still offers special treatment to Novell.
View PlateSpin/ Novell’s Virtualization Conference & Expo Session Through A SYS-CON Webcast
People
Nat Friedman was mentioned in this fluffy post and Novell’s former CEO was mentioned in the Financial Times
In 2001, as it started to be apparent that the search engine they had invented as graduate students was becoming a powerful, global company, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided they needed to recruit a more seasoned pro to be CEO. Their choice was Eric Schmidt, a computer scientist and Silicon Valley veteran who was then the chief of Novell.
In light of what's happening at VMware, cday wrote this comment: “I wonder, will we soon be seeing the same thing happen to Novell as happened to VMware? Like one morning the CEO (Hovsepian?) will be informed by the BOD that he’s been voted out and replaced by a ‘former’ Microsoft employee?”
Here is another one about Schmidt.
March 26, 2001
Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Novell Inc., is named chairman.
Yet another one from the British press:
Nasty: Eric Schmidt
Google’s chief executive is the man who brings cold-hearted capitalism to the wacky Googlisms. Schmidt is the corporate rottweiler, there to stand up to Microsoft’s pitbull chief executive Steve Ballmer. And his background at Novell – a company that never recovered from Microsoft taking over its established market – means there is a score to settle with Redmond.
Over in Britain, there is also this shuffle of Novellers.
IT business solutions provider Novell has made three Scottish-based promotions as part of a move into vertically-integrated markets.
Tony Dunn, James McGregor and Kenny Stewart take on new sales and operational roles at both national and international level. Mr Dunn has been appointed as UK & Ireland sales director, Mr McGregor becomes the western region’s (UK, Ireland, Middle East & Africa) head of operations and Mr Stewart is promoted to western region services director.
The trio were the founding directors of Ariadne, the Scottish-based technical consulting organisation which Novell acquired in 2000.
There were some more moves and reappointments that had already been mentioned here. A new press release helps keep track of the people.
In the weeks prior to the funding, the SiCortex board also added former Novell Inc. executive Christopher Stone to the chief executive position, replacing co-founder John Mucci, who remains as a board member.
Utah
Novell’s cafeteria in Utah attracts a crowd:
There will be a panel discussion about funding for entrepreneurs at 11:45 a.m. Thursday at the Novell cafeteria, 1800 Novell Place. The discussion, titled “Meet the Money,” is for entrepreneurs who need capital to grow their dreams. The panel will feature Jeremy Neilson with Fund of Funds, Josh Case with MJM Capital, Arthur Newell with Wells Fargo Bank, Gavin Christensen with KickStart Seed Fund and Stan Kanorowski with Park City Angels.
Here is a very nice photo from Provo. It shows a Novell employee.
Brenon Christensen of Novell fills a wheel barrel with dead grass at the House of Hope in Provo during the United Way Day of Caring Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008.
The local press published this rave about the state’s economy and it did not forget Novell’s role.
Shauna Theobald, chair of the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum, which promotes business start-ups, said an “ecosystem” has developed in Utah County that feeds entrepreneurial activity. That includes a history of high-tech companies stretching back to WordPerfect and Novell and a group of Angel investors, individuals who pour money into start-ups.
“We’ve got the money. We’ve got the inventors. We’ve got the experience,” said Theobald, a manager at Novell’s Open Source Technology Center.
Coming from Novell, is this type of cheering justified? █
Shauna Theobald said,
October 22, 2008 at 9:46 am
Hmmm….that quote doesn’t come across as I’d intended it. I was not referring to Novell specifically but was referencing the Kauffman Foundation 2007 State Economy Index ranking Provo-Orem area as:
1 in economic dynamism
2 in number of patents issued
5 in venture capital as a percentage of worker earnings
3 in job churn
15 in knowledge jobs
For the past 20 years, Novell has contributed significantly to the regional economy and to the development of its IT workforce. Now Novell is giving back to the community through providing facilities and support for an open source business incubator. We currently have 11 promising start-up ventures.
Thanks for the opportunity to clarify those attributed quotes.
Shauna Theobald